Keishi Otomo¡¯s ¡°The Legend & Butterfly,¡± which was made to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Toei studio, looks like the sort of big-budget Japanese period drama that too often calls up adjectives like ¡°dull¡± and ¡°turgid.¡±
Based on a script by Ryota Kosawa, however, the film scraps the usual explanatory narration that brings back memories of soporific history classes ¡ª a daring choice for a mass-audience epic that clips through three decades in the complex lives of its two protagonists: warlord Oda Nobunaga (Takuya Kimura) and his wife, Nohime (Haruka Ayase).
Instead, it focuses on the pair¡¯s relationship while brushing past much of what transpires around them, from clan wars to Nobunaga¡¯s children by his various concubines. (Nohime was childless, though the film mentions a miscarriage.)
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